


Convincing Youself You're Better Alone

by chasing_the_sterek



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, forts solve all issues, not necessarily in that order, pre-shatt if you wear your special shipping glasses, well maybe not all of them but theyre definitely magic lemme tell you that much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 09:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9878786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasing_the_sterek/pseuds/chasing_the_sterek
Summary: "We're gonna build a fort," he announces, and Shiro just kind of stares."What?"///Shiro wakes up from a nightmare to a friend.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song _Miss You_ by Gabrielle Aplin, because that was playing when I was trying to think of a title.

_Purple, so much purple, bright lights circling -_

_Scrape and thunk of a weapon, likely a sword, sharpening its blade on hard ground -_

_Cloying fear, accelerating his heartbeat and constricting his chest, can't get enough air but can't breathe too harshly, he'll be **heard** -_

_"Don't hide, Champion, we're not finished yet!"_

Shiro startles awake with a gasp, eyes snapping open.

Matt stares back. "You okay?"

Shiro shoves the remaining panic down and away. Matt probably wouldn't have come into his room at the space equivalent of 3AM if he didn't need something - Shiro can deal with his own issues later. "I think the more important question is if you are," he manages to get out. It even sounds completely normal, which is a surprising achievement.

Matt's concern half-melts into a scowl. "Don't avoid the question."

"I'm fine," Shiro dismisses, sitting up and drawing his knees to his chest. He pats the space next to him. "Wanna talk about it?"

Matt's eyes flick to the bedsheets. "Okay, I'm going to say something, and I mean this in the least offensive way possible," he starts slowly.

". . . Okay?"

"Those sheets probably stink," he says bluntly. _"You_ probably stink." At Shiro's confused expression he adds: "You're sweating. I wouldn't sit on those if you paid me with seventy coffee machines and a map leading directly to Bigfoot. And the while _I'm fine_ thing? Bullshit. Get up."

Shiro blinks once, then follows Matt out of the room when he tugs on his arm. "Where are we going?"

"Hell if I know. You guys got a hang-out room?"

"We have a common room," Shiro offers.

"Good enough," Matt says, and shoves him in front so he can lead the way.

Shiro does. He sits on the sofa when Matt tells him to, and waits there even when he speedwalks out of the room and doesn't come back for half an hour.

When he does, he's got an armful of blankets and pillows. Shiro's not actually sure how he managed go pick that many up at once, and the confusion only grows when Matt flings all of it onto the floor in the middle of the circle of couches and leaves again.

He stands up. "D'you need a-"

"Nah, I'm good." His words are muffled by the mountain of blankets and pillows obscuring his vision. Shiro wonders how well Matt knows where he's going, and readies himself a little just in case he needs to catch him or steady him or whatever. "Thanks."

The second load seems to be enough, and Matt hops down onto the near-cloud of his spoils. "We're gonna build a fort," he announces, and Shiro just kind of stares.

"What?"

"Fort," Matt repeats. He sounds sure, but his eyes look hesitant, almost wary, like he's not certain if Shiro's going to go along with this, if this is even the same Shiro he knew before all of this shit happened with Zarkon and Altea and Voltron. Shiro wonders how it came to this, how a handful of humans got chucked into the middle of a war and were made to question who they were afterwards. He wants to reassure, to tell Matt he's still the guy who marathon-played Pokémon for nearly a whole day without realizing and still yelled at him for not sleeping for a week afterwards.

"We don't have a middle support," he says instead.

Matt grins.

**Author's Note:**

> So short omg
> 
> I wrote this originally for Voltron's rare-pair week but a) didn't follow up with any of the other prompts and b) forgot to actually put that much Shatt in. Whoops.
> 
> Prompt was "past/present" if you're curious


End file.
